This week, the mighty LOUIE REPORT spotlight points in the direction of our friend Ron Fowler and his band The R.F.’s (formerly known as Jeff & the R.F.’s), who just unveiled a brand new version of their fine little LOUIE mutant mash-up entitled “Smells Like LOUIE LOUIE!”

“This is such a loony idea, i’m surprised nobody else did it before we did. We took the 2 most iconic songs associated with Northwest Rock, 2 songs that NO ONE can understand the words to, and we mashed them together. Imagine Paul Revere and the Raiders, circa 1963, onstage, at the Spanish Castle, kicking off the immortal Richard Berry song…and suddenly the time machine transports them to 1992, and a Nirvana concert at Paramount Northwest….does Kurt Cobain know how to stop and shout and work it on out?….”

Last week, I witnessed an excellent performance by one of the coolest cats on Planet Earth – my pal Robert Williams, aka Big Sandy, who was touring with Reverend Horton Heat. I caught ’em at the Ritz in San Jose, and Sandy unveiled a nice little surprise… a wonderful rendition of “Havana Moon!”

As some of you, may be aware, “Havana Moon” by Chuck Berry was a song that Richard Berry acknowledged as one of the songs that might have inspired Richard’s “LOUIE LOUIE!” … and no, Richard and Chuck are not related….

I just out about a cool German rockabilly band known as Sandy and The Wild Wombats. Apparently, they’ve been doing some extensive touring all over Europe, and they’ve already played the “Viva Las Vegas” event last year.

The lead vocalist / ringleader of this group, Sandy West, has a real distinctive voice, and i’m hoping the band will visit San Francisco in the near future.

Anyways, I found a cool performance they did of “Have Love Will Travel”- Richard Berry‘s own sequel to his LOUIE, and I figured I just had to share this thing.

This recording came from their debut album “The Girl Can’t Help It!” and the video is really a hoot… probably the funniest video i’ve ever seen of this song!

You can find out more about this band by visiting www.sandy-wild.com, which for now, is their Facebook page.

Hopefully nobody’s going to confuse this band with another great “Sandy band”- Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys, featuring my friend Big Sandy aka Robert Williams. They also do an excellent version of “Have Love Will Travel,” but it’s more like Richard Berry’s version, as opposed to the Wild Wombats, who used the Sonics version as a template.

We are devastated to pass on the news we only just heard ourselves earlier tonight…Edward Allan Clarke – or as we all know and love him Fast Eddie Clarke – passed away peacefully yesterday. Ted Carroll (who formed Chiswick Records) made the sad announcement via his FB page, having heard from Doug Smith that Fast Eddie passed peacefully in hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia…

Phil Campbell said, “JUST HEARD THE SAD NEWS THAT FAST EDDIE CLARKE HAS PASSED AWAY. SUCH A SHOCK, HE WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR HIS ICONIC RIFFS AND WAS A TRUE ROCK N ROLLER. RIP EDDIE.”

Mikkey Dee said, ““OH MY FUCKING GOD, THIS IS TERRIBLE NEWS, THE LAST OF THE THREE AMIGOS. I SAW EDDIE NOT TOO LONG AGO AND HE WAS IN GREAT SHAPE. SO THIS IS A COMPLETE SHOCK. ME AND EDDIE ALWAYS HIT IT OFF GREAT. I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HIM IN THE UK THIS SUMMER WHEN WE COME AROUND WITH THE SCORPS…NOW LEM AND PHILTHY CAN JAM WITH EDDIE AGAIN, AND IF YOU LISTEN CAREFULLY I’M SURE YOU’LL HEAR THEM, SO WATCH OUT!!! MY THOUGHTS GO OUT TO EDDIE’S FAMILY AND CLOSE ONES.”

“Louie Louie” was Motörhead’s first single for Bronze Records in 1978, following their initial release on Chiswick Records in 1977. It was a relatively faithful cover of the song, with “Fast” Eddie Clarke’s guitar emulating the Hohner Pianet electric piano riff. It was released as a 7″ vinyl single and reached number 68 on the UK Singles Chart. The reverse cover carries the dog Latin motto “Nil Illegitimum Carborundum”, which is humorously said to mean “Don’t let the bastards grind you down”. The song is released with “Tear Ya Down” and appears on the CD re-issues of Overkill and The Best of Motörhead compilation. On 25 October 1978 a pre-recording of the band playing this song was broadcast on the BBC show Top of the Pops.

We lost Larry on February 19th. Before he became a jazz legend, he was a rocker with the Dynamics in the Pacific Northwest. He was a big fan of the Fabulous Wailers, and became a very close friend of Richard Dangel, the original guitarist.

Larry provided a great interview for the LOUIE project, and you can see a snippet at the original post last year.

Bobby Lloyd Hicks was a drummer with Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men who later joined NRBQ. He passed away on February 19th, but was acknowledged in November on these pages after a highly entertaining version of THE SONG sung by Bobby was uncovered.

Chuck Berry left this planet March 18th. I didn’t get around to writing up a proper obit for his passing, but I did write about his 90th birthday what seemed like a few months earlier, acknowledging how “Havana Moon” was an inspiration for Richard Berry’s (no relation) most famous creation.

Anyways, here’s a super-cool photo of Chuck Berry playing with Barry Curtis of the Kingsmen! I don’t know who took this photo, but it’s a keeper!

Carl (Carlo) Driggs was the lead vocalist for Paul Revere & The Raiders from 1983 through 2004, holding that position for 21 years, longer than any other vocalist that performed with the band. Carlo left us on May 31.

Our friend M. Dung was a major advocate of LOUIE LOUIE. He was a radio DJ that celebrated the song on a massive scale and hosted two LOUIE LOUIE Parades in San Francisco, assisted by special guest, songwriter Richard Berry. We lost Michael on June 30.

Ken Kaffke was an ally, advisor and a wonderful friend of the LOUIE documentary project. A generous soul with a mission to share the “good stuff,” Ken shared a deep passion for comic books, rock ‘n’ roll music and humor in a jugular vein. August 18 was his last day on this planet.

Grant Hart of Hüsker Dü was yet another one lost to cancer, leaving this mortal world on September 13. Memories of a mind-blowing 1983 punk rock show at Foothill College a few months after the infamous Maximum LOUIE LOUIE marathon at the same campus still remain vivid…. all these years later..

Yet another death we didn’t expect. An under-rated singer-songwriter whose demise on October 2nd sparked a floodgate of sorrow felt around the world.

As fate would have it, one of the earliest bootleg CDs I ever discovered featuring the song LOUIE LOUIE was a Tom Petty CD entitled simply “LOUIE LOUIE.” It was never a legitimate release, but it’s a cool version..

Fats Domino was the modest musical pioneer that brought rock ‘n’ roll music to the American mainstream, selling more hit records between 1950 and 1963 than Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Buddy Holly combined.

Did you know that Richard Berry was part of a Fats Domino show in 1956 that sparked one of the earliest rock and roll riots in the USA?

Fred Cole of Dead Moon lost his battle with cancer on Nov 9th. Before he created Dead Moon with his wife / life-partner Kathleen “Toody” Cole, he recorded with a band known as The Lords, then the Weeds, which evolved into the Lollipop Shoppe in 1968, appearing on the first Nuggets compilation.

Of course, we had to mention that Fred proudly utilized the original lathe used for mastering the original release of the Kingsmen‘s LOUIE LOUIE for many of his own recordings of his band Dead Moon.

We were saddened to lose yet another friend of the LOUIE project. Pat was an ally that provided a wonderful LOUIE LOUIE interview many years ago, and the LOUIE team collaborated on a special multi-camera concert video production of the Smithereens that was utilized by as a showcase for Apple Quicktime technology.

Keely Smith, the iconic vocalist who achieved success as both a solo artist and with her musical partnership with first husband Louis Prima, died on Dec. 16.

The Louis and Keely partnership was a powerful entity in the entertainment business, working as recording artists in the music industry, as well as performing in theater, television, and motion pictures. In addition to being the first musicians to win a Grammy for best pop vocal performance by a duo or group in 1959, they were also amongst the earliest musicians to ever cover a Richard Berry song when they recorded “(There’ll Be No) Next Time” in 1957.

There were quite a few other artists we lost in 2017. Here’s a partial list of some of the others, in no particular order…

I almost forgot to mention the passing of a beloved Dobermann named Lucy Da Bloozie, who was also provided inspiration for the LOUIE project…

I’m also so very grateful that my friend Stretch Riedle did NOT become part of this list, as he could have easily been added if not for the assistance of certain real-life angels that provided CPR at the right time.

Big thanks again to Wendy and the Santa Cruz County E.R. team for being there.

Big thanks to my friends Mark Passell of the Buffalo Chips (KFJC live version #379) and David Richoux of Friday Night Music (KFJC live version #092) for bringing this one to my attention!

P.S. The title of this blog post is “The last LOUIE cartoon of 2017?,” but If someone is inspired to create another LOUIE LOUIE cartoon before the end of the year, then I will change it to “The almost-last LOUIE cartoon of 2017.”

I want to send out a big Happy Holidays message from LouieLouie.net, aka the LOUIE REPORT!

It’s been quite a year. We lost more good friends, came very close to losing some friends, saw some frends lose their homes, and dealt with a whole new set of challenges with all the big changes that happened in USA.

Anyways, the Louie project is still standing, and moving forward in a slow, but steady path towards finishing this long-awaited documentary.

Big thanks for those that continue to support the project, via kind words and donations towards what’s turned into an incredible archive of LOUIE-related media and memorabilia. We are humbled by some wonderful exclusives that shall be shared in the near future.

In the meantime, I want to wish everyone of you the best of holidays and a happy new year!

Keely Smith, the iconic jazz and pop vocalist who achieved success as both a solo artist and with her musical partnership with first husband Louis Prima, died on Dec. 16 in Palm Springs.

She was 89.

The singer was “under physicians’ care at the time of her passing from apparent heart failure,” according to publicist Bob Merlis.

Smith was a Grammy-winning talent who gained much attention when as a teenager she got the job as the “girl singer” in Prima’s band in 1948.

She married Prima in 1953 and achieved success together throughout the entertainment business, starring in stage, television and movies and releasing hit records.

They’d win a Grammy in 1959 — the first year the awards were handed out — for best pop vocal performance by a duo or group for their smash “That Old Black Magic,” which remained on the charts for 18 weeks.

Prima and Smith had two children, Toni Prima and Luanne Prima, both of whom survive their mother. Louis Prima died in 1978.

The LOUIE LOUIE connection is there. Here’s a few things…

1) Louis Prima (with Sam Butera) were amongst the earliest musicians to ever cover a Richard Berry song when they recorded “(There’ll Be No) Next Time” in 1957.

2) One of the big hits for Keely and Louis was a song called “Hey Boy! Hey Girl!,” which was co-written by Jeanette Baker, a good friend of Richard Berry. It was originally released in 1958 by Jeanette and her co-writer Oscar McLollie on the Class label, which inspired a 1959 movie with Keely and Louis, as well an accompanying soundtrack album of the same name